Tang Yu’s expression was serious.
He stared blankly at the intelligence report before him.
He decided to first play... inspect the current development of Green Shadow’s entertainment industry, especially the gaming sector.
So he played several rounds, one after another.
The game mechanism was well-designed to ensure maximum fairness. Strength and weakness were demonstrated through reaction speed, battle wit, strategy, etc., not like many older action games where higher-skilled, quicker-reacting players completely dominated ordinary players, like a father beating his grandson.
Although higher levels equated to wealthy people or high spenders— the sponsors, the people at Green Shadow were genuine game developers. If high-level Awakeners could easily thrash ordinary people, then... where would the desire to spend money come from?
Thus, Tang Yu thoroughly enjoyed playing as a Crystal-Consuming Man in the game.
Lorraine and others had already set off towards the Vortex Sea Area on board the Deep Sea Giant Shark, and he, Lord Tang, just needed to stay in his castle, occasionally discussing spells with Eileen, researching laws, sometimes visiting the Army base to make his presence felt and watch, under the admiring gaze of the Army’s Awakeners, how they were rigorously trained by Luo Zhe.
From time to time, he made suggestions to increase the difficulty, but of course... the specific training plans were all set up by the stern Chief Instructor Luo and had nothing to do with him, Lord Tang.
He also occasionally peeked at a screen in the Spirit Space. Sometimes, he went to Sky Blue Star to give some pointers to his disciple, Shanggong Ling— although since Shanggong Ling achieved Transcendence, Tang Yu felt... perhaps... he might not have much guidance left to offer— Shanggong Ling was now even verging on touching upon the Time Law, but he, Lord Tang, knew jack about Time Law!
About a month later, the Deep Sea Giant Shark reached the Vortex Sea Area.
The Vortex Sea Area was named after the numerous whirlpools scattered throughout, large and small. The first sight of the Vortex Sea often elicited reactions like "f*ck," "Isn’t this too dangerous?" or "Can ships even pass through here?"
But in reality... the Vortex Sea Area was genuinely dangerous.
Apart from a few islands inhabited by native life forms— true natives, still living primitive lives or just beginning to develop civilization, with their living areas and awareness confined to the islands, each island was their entire world— there were no nations within the Vortex Sea Area.
But for pirates, Vortex Island felt relatively safe.
Ships swallowed by giant whirlpools would burst out from another whirlpool, the process entirely random, possibly appearing within a whirlpool 10 nautical miles away or whooshing to one 5000 nautical miles distant.
Entering from the same whirlpool, one ship might emerge 800 nautical miles to the east while another might pop out of a whirlpool 300 nautical miles to the west.
It was as if wormholes connected the whirlpools.
This was particularly notable for major pirates because the rapidly spinning water had considerable destructive power, and regular warships could not withstand being flung out from another whirlpool, disintegrating the ships. Only flagship-level pirate ships could withstand the whirlpools’ destructive force and had enough power to escape.
Facing an unbeatable enemy, just diving into a whirlpool meant a 99% chance of escape, the remaining 1% left to those cursed by bad luck.
On their way to the Vortex Sea Area, the Deep Sea Giant Shark, with a bounty of eight million, had already been exchanged for Source Crystals in some maritime kingdom— without "Blood Eye" Hu Jiu’s head, he was completely obliterated by Kong. As a ’Crystal-Consuming Man’ of Green Shadow, Kong was the least concerned about wealth, yet Lorraine still felt extremely heartbroken— although even if they had obtained Blood Eye’s bounty, it would have had nothing to do with her.
The death of the Deep Sea Giant Shark caused no ripples in the Endless Sea; in the occasional tavern where someone well-informed might mention it, it was merely in passing. Lorraine and the others still had little fame, but the name she casually picked, "Black Skull Pirate Group," had gained a bit of a reputation in the surrounding seas after events involving Blue Water Duchy, Nucang Duchy, Kowloon Island, and the Giant Shark.
Active pirates and marine traders in nearby seas were now aware of the rise of the "Black Skull" major pirate... and that was it.
The Deep Sea Giant Shark submarined hundreds of meters below the surface, almost undisturbed by sea monsters. By the time the Deep Sea Giant Shark arrived in the Vortex Sea Area, another intelligence ship that had set off earlier was still floating somewhere at sea.
As they entered the Vortex Sea Area, the invitation envelope lying by their side suddenly emitted a faint glow, and under the watchful eyes of Lorraine, Li, and others, the envelope rotated, its seal pointing in a specific direction.
The Deep Sea Giant Shark wasn’t traveling in a straight line, and the direction indicated by the envelope’s seal slowly shifted as well.
"It looks like it’s pointing towards Gathering Island, but earlier we didn’t realize the emblem had this additional function. What would we have done if we had triggered the third projection earlier?"
Lorraine steered the Deep Sea Giant Shark to change its direction. A drawback of this guiding function was that it didn’t show the distance, which was far inferior to GPS navigation. Lorraine could only make the Deep Sea Giant Shark surface to observe whether there was an island in the advancing direction and if other ships surrounded it.
a hand reached over, held the envelope, and turned it 180 degrees.
The envelope slowly rotated back, and halfway through, the small hand stopped it, immobilizing it.
Lorraine turned her head and saw Li’s head resting on the table, his two fingers spread wide holding the envelope down, amusingly rotating it back and forth.
Li then put the envelope into a Space Ring and, after sensing it for a while, pouted and said, "It’s no fun when it’s inside the ring."
Was this really about being fun?
Lorraine looked around.
Shay was playing cards with several crew members, his weird, laughter sporadically erupting, while the foreheads of other crew members were adorned with varying amounts of white paper slips, except for Shay—who, after all, was adept at playing often and was pretty good, as long as he wasn’t facing Eileen, Nancy, and other "lucky gods," or Xing Ling and Xing Yue, and not facing Luo Zhe and Kong who were also skilled and lucky, Shay likely had a good chance of winning.
Xing Ling and Xing Yue faced each other, their eyes closed, their Perception sealed, playing blind chess. They were handling five simultaneous games with swift moves, leaving the crew members responsible for the pieces almost too busy to manage.
Lorraine stared for a while but... couldn’t understand it.
Kong ... was invisible, probably in his routine cultivation retreat.
Tylon and the Carmen Three Brothers were here this time as reinforcements for the Pirate Gathering.
The Carmen Three Brothers were indulging in drinking. Although Lorraine was a bartender and a lover of fine drinks, she couldn’t agree with their barrel-sized drinking method, devoid of any sophistication—absolutely heretical!
Out of sight, out of mind.
Tylon, he was a giant muscleman, so big he couldn’t even fit in the cockpit.
Looking around the cabin, Lorraine suddenly realized that although she was slacking off at work, dodging taxes at the bar, and nursing hangovers, she was still a good ship captain.
Next time, she would have to ask her boss for a raise!
she perked up, spotting through the Deep Sea Giant Shark an island ahead, and could faintly discern the traces of numerous ships on the sea surface.